This Week's Macintel News

Low End
Mac has standardized on Macintel as our informal label for the
forthcoming OS X on Intel Macintosh computers, although you'll
probably find just as many people calling them "Mactels". Whatever
we call them, Apple's decision to switch to Intel CPUs means we
live in very interesting times.

Apple Guards G4 Chip Stash

TheStreet.com's Troy Wolverton reports:

"Apple Computer's move to Intel chips may take a bit longer than
expected, if a deal announced by the computer company on Friday is
any indication.

"Apple has reached a new purchasing agreement with longtime
supplier Freescale Semiconductor, which produces the PowerPC G4
chip for the computer maker, according to a regulatory document
filed Friday by Apple. Under terms of the new deal, Apple has the
right to buy - and Freescale has the obligation to supply - PowerPC
chips through the end of 2008.

"That's a full year after the date when the company plans to
move its entire line of Macintosh computers from PowerPC to Intel
processors. Apple uses Freescale's G4 chips in its notebook
computers and in its lower-end desktop models such as the Mac
Mini."

Freescale to Supply Apple with G4 Processors
through 2008

EE Times Dylan McGrath reports:

"Apple Computer Inc.'s transition to Intel Corp.'s
microprocessors may not happen as fast as expected, as the computer
maker on Friday (Aug. 26) reported that it has signed a
microprocessor supply agreement with Freescale Semiconductor Inc.
that lasts through 2008.

"According to a document filed by Apple with the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission, Apple and Freescale entered into a
purchase agreement Aug. 22 whereby Freescale is obligated to supply
Apple with Power PC microprocessors through 2008."

New Intel CPUs More Efficient than Pentium
4

Laptop Logic reports:

"For the past few product cycles, Intel has been 're-using'
their design. When the Banias version of the Pentium M came out, it
was mostly derived from the Pentium III rather than the Pentium 4.
Dothan brought some nice improvements and refinements to the
Centrino platform, but again not a major departure from the
previous platform. The Sonoma platform brought new features and
capabilities, including a faster FSB, DDR2, and PCI-E.

"Merom is a completely new architecture, just with a lot of
features reminiscent of both the previous Pentium M and the
Netburst architecture of the Pentium 4. To start with, Intel has
abandoned the high-speed/long pipeline of the Netburst
architecture. This means that instead of 3 GHz+ clocks and a
ridiculously long pipeline (Prescott was into 30+ stages), Merom
will have a 14 stage pipeline for a much higher IPC (Instructions
Per Clock) count. This simply means that Merom will do more work in
a single clock cycle than the Pentium 4 could ever have hoped to
do, and it should do even better than Dothan. The 65nm
manufacturing process might allow clock speeds around 3 GHz,
but not much beyond that. The core will be able to process four
instructions at a time. There will be a direct L1-to-L1 cache
transfer system, which should help improve the disappointing
cache-to-cache transfer performance of Intel's current dual core
desktop chips."

AMD Knocks Intel on Power

eWeek's John G Spooner reports:

"AMD is fighting the power.

"Even with Intel Corp.'s new focus on delivering higher
processor performance per watt of energy, unveiled here at its fall
Intel Developer Forum, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. maintains that
its Opteron server chips consume less juice than its rival Intel's
Xeon server chips, either available now or coming in the near
future."

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Welcome Image and Text

We believe in the long term value of Apple hardware. You should be able to use your Apple gear as long as it helps you remain productive and meets your needs, upgrading only as necessary. We want to help maximize the life of your Apple gear.